Pembina renews opposition to PNW-LNG

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – The left-leaning Pembina Institute is out with another critique of the Pacific Northwest LNG project.

It is arguing the ineffectiveness of British Columbia’s new climate plan is underscored by the looming threat posed by the Petronas led project to the province’s emissions targets.

The Institute has today released what it calls a new infographic, quantifying the potential environmental impacts of PNW-LNG in the context of what it calls the incomplete Climate Leadership Plan unveiled last month by the Provincial Government.

The updated analysis was included in a letter to Federal Environment and Climate Change Minister, Catherine McKenna, as the Trudeau government continues the review process of the project long considered a front-runner in the race to build Canada’s first LNG export project.

The institute claims carbon pollution from the two phases of the plant proposed for the Prince Rupert area, and its associated upstream operations extending to the Peace Region, could reach 9.2 million tonnes by 2030 and increase to ten million by 2050.

It also claims the project could result in the drilling of 258 extra shale gas wells and the usage of five point one million cubic metres of fresh water per year.

Thus it says potential environmental impacts of the project in 2030 would be comparable to the carbon pollution of one point nine million cars on the road and the residential fresh-water use of 56 thousand Canadians.

Noting BC’s legislated climate target for 2050 is 13 million tonnes of carbon pollution, the Pembina perspective is that the project would torpedo that target.

Thus it is recommending the federal government reject the project and is also calling on the B-C government to implement the full package of recommendations from its expert advisory panel—the Climate Leadership Team.

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